lily
01-03-2007, 04:39 PM
This was handled so badly, that we're going to have to hear about it for years, making Sadaam the martyr he so desidred to be. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010200421.html?referrer=email)
Iraq Probes Disorder At Hussein Execution
Video From Hanging, Showing Chaotic Scene, Draws Condemnation
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, January 3, 2007; Page A14
BAGHDAD, Jan. 2 -- As thousands of Saddam Hussein's supporters protested in
Sunni Arab enclaves across Iraq, the Shiite-led government said it had
launched an investigation into the chaotic scene at his execution, captured
on video, which has deepened the nation's sectarian rift and sparked
condemnation around the world.
Iraqi officials said a committee from the Interior Ministry would likely
question everyone, including senior Iraqi officials, who was present at the
hanging, where witnesses mocked and jeered the ousted president as he stood
at the gallows. Hours later, grainy video of the event, taken with a
cellphone camera, was broadcast around the world, bringing more pressure on
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take action.
An Arabic-language Web site posted this apparent cellphone image of
former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein taken just before his hanging on
Saturday. The distribution of such images was sharply condemned in Iraq and
abroad.
Saddam Hussein was hanged Dec. 30, 2006, after an Iraqi tribunal found
him guilty of crimes against humanity.
The video triggered outrage, in Iraq and abroad, at the undignified and
disorderly moments before Hussein's hanging. Iraq's Sunnis declared the
execution an act of Shiite revenge. The Vatican, in its official newspaper,
called the images from the hanging "a spectacle" that violated human rights
and could harm Iraq's process of reconciliation. The Italian government,
which like all members of the European Union opposes the death penalty, said
after the appearance of the video that it would push at the United Nations
for a worldwide moratorium on capital punishment.
U.S. officials have declined to comment publicly, but have privately
expressed concern at the hastiness of the execution, which came just four
days after an appeals court upheld Hussein's death sentence.
The video was the latest example of how amateurs using modern technology are
exposing abuses and holding the powerful to account. The investigation,
officials said, would focus not only on who hurled the taunts but also on
how the video was leaked, damaging the government's credibility. Maliki's
political adviser, Sadiq al-Rikabi, said the prime minister was
"disappointed about that film."
"He took the subject very seriously," Rikabi said. "The prime minister tried
his best to implement the execution very respectfully."
In the video, one person yells, "Go to hell," at Hussein while another voice
is heard chanting, "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada," referring to Moqtada
al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose father and two brothers were
assassinated by Hussein's regime. The taunts provoked Hussein to hurl
insults. Later, images of Hussein's swinging body were plastered on dozens
of Web sites. On the video-sharing site Youtube.com, a search using the
terms "Saddam Hussein hanging" generated 1,559 results Tuesday night.
The probe could implicate senior Iraqi officials. Munqith al-Faroun, the
deputy prosecutor in Hussein's trial, said in a telephone interview Tuesday
that he saw two official observers using their cellphones to record
Hussein's last moments. The two men, he said, were "recording through their
mobiles openly." He said he did not know them but would recognize them if he
saw them again.
Maliki aides said they did not think any officials were behind the video.
"I think [it was] one of the guards, but let us leave everything to the
inquiry," Rikabi said.
"I am confident that they were not the guards, for I checked the guards. I
kept them under my eye," Faroun said. "They were not people who came off the
street." Iraqi officials had been flown in by two U.S. helicopters from the
Green Zone an hour before the execution.
Faroun, who could be heard in the video appealing for calm, said he had
considered walking out during the disorderly moments, which would have
halted the execution because his presence was required by law. But soon the
room quieted.
"If there were other violations, I would have stepped out," he said. "I did
not make a threat. But it was in my mind. If I noticed another violation, I
would have stopped the execution and taken other measures," he added,
without being specific.
Faroun said he did not know how the video cellphones were taken into the
execution room at the former military intelligence headquarters, where
Hussein's government had tortured and killed his opponents. Everyone at the
hanging, Faroun said, was searched and had their phones taken. "Even my
cellphone, which had no camera, was taken," he said.
The Reuters news agency, meanwhile, reported that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad had urged Maliki to postpone the execution for two weeks until
after the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha but that he relented after Maliki
produced documents legally authorizing the execution. U.S. officials
declined to comment on the report.
In Hussein's home town of Tikrit, peaceful protests continued for the third
straight day. Tuesday morning, several thousand demonstrators marched to the
nearby village of Auja, where Hussein is buried. Firing guns into the air,
they chanted, "Revenge, revenge," and, "We shall always remain Baathists,"
referring to Hussein's outlawed Baath Party. The protesters carried
portraits of the former leader depicting him as the hero of the Arab Nation.
Thousands more Sunnis protested in the northern city of Mosul, while in
Baghdad, similar but smaller demonstrations have taken place in several
mainly Sunni neighborhoods.
"This action really put a great difficulty in front of us," said Alaa Maki,
an influential Sunni politician, referring to the execution and video. "So
many people now are having strong reactions against the Shiites, and they're
doing shouts here and there and saying Saddam is a hero. This will not
benefit the building of the political process."
He added that Maliki needed to take decisive action against Sadr and his
Mahdi Army militia. "Now he's in a very critical state," Maki said of the
prime minister. "My advice to him is he has to sign -- as he signed the
execution of Saddam -- he has to sign the pulling out of weapons of the
Mahdi Army and the militias. Otherwise, he's a prime minister for Shiites.
Not only for Shiites but for al-Sadr and the people of all the militias."
Rikabi scoffed at the criticism from Sunnis that the execution showed
Maliki's inability to control militias. "This is not related to the
militias," he said. "You can't judge the ability of the prime minister by
this."
"To be honest with you, many people try to defend Saddam," he said. "They
can't say, 'Oh, Saddam was a very good president. Why did you kill him?' So
they try to find some small mistakes here or there."
On Tuesday, the U.S. military reported that an American soldier was killed
and three others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their
patrol southwest of Baghdad on Monday. The soldiers were in a village
talking to residents about sectarian violence in the area. An interpreter
was among the three injured.
Iraq Probes Disorder At Hussein Execution
Video From Hanging, Showing Chaotic Scene, Draws Condemnation
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, January 3, 2007; Page A14
BAGHDAD, Jan. 2 -- As thousands of Saddam Hussein's supporters protested in
Sunni Arab enclaves across Iraq, the Shiite-led government said it had
launched an investigation into the chaotic scene at his execution, captured
on video, which has deepened the nation's sectarian rift and sparked
condemnation around the world.
Iraqi officials said a committee from the Interior Ministry would likely
question everyone, including senior Iraqi officials, who was present at the
hanging, where witnesses mocked and jeered the ousted president as he stood
at the gallows. Hours later, grainy video of the event, taken with a
cellphone camera, was broadcast around the world, bringing more pressure on
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take action.
An Arabic-language Web site posted this apparent cellphone image of
former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein taken just before his hanging on
Saturday. The distribution of such images was sharply condemned in Iraq and
abroad.
Saddam Hussein was hanged Dec. 30, 2006, after an Iraqi tribunal found
him guilty of crimes against humanity.
The video triggered outrage, in Iraq and abroad, at the undignified and
disorderly moments before Hussein's hanging. Iraq's Sunnis declared the
execution an act of Shiite revenge. The Vatican, in its official newspaper,
called the images from the hanging "a spectacle" that violated human rights
and could harm Iraq's process of reconciliation. The Italian government,
which like all members of the European Union opposes the death penalty, said
after the appearance of the video that it would push at the United Nations
for a worldwide moratorium on capital punishment.
U.S. officials have declined to comment publicly, but have privately
expressed concern at the hastiness of the execution, which came just four
days after an appeals court upheld Hussein's death sentence.
The video was the latest example of how amateurs using modern technology are
exposing abuses and holding the powerful to account. The investigation,
officials said, would focus not only on who hurled the taunts but also on
how the video was leaked, damaging the government's credibility. Maliki's
political adviser, Sadiq al-Rikabi, said the prime minister was
"disappointed about that film."
"He took the subject very seriously," Rikabi said. "The prime minister tried
his best to implement the execution very respectfully."
In the video, one person yells, "Go to hell," at Hussein while another voice
is heard chanting, "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada," referring to Moqtada
al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose father and two brothers were
assassinated by Hussein's regime. The taunts provoked Hussein to hurl
insults. Later, images of Hussein's swinging body were plastered on dozens
of Web sites. On the video-sharing site Youtube.com, a search using the
terms "Saddam Hussein hanging" generated 1,559 results Tuesday night.
The probe could implicate senior Iraqi officials. Munqith al-Faroun, the
deputy prosecutor in Hussein's trial, said in a telephone interview Tuesday
that he saw two official observers using their cellphones to record
Hussein's last moments. The two men, he said, were "recording through their
mobiles openly." He said he did not know them but would recognize them if he
saw them again.
Maliki aides said they did not think any officials were behind the video.
"I think [it was] one of the guards, but let us leave everything to the
inquiry," Rikabi said.
"I am confident that they were not the guards, for I checked the guards. I
kept them under my eye," Faroun said. "They were not people who came off the
street." Iraqi officials had been flown in by two U.S. helicopters from the
Green Zone an hour before the execution.
Faroun, who could be heard in the video appealing for calm, said he had
considered walking out during the disorderly moments, which would have
halted the execution because his presence was required by law. But soon the
room quieted.
"If there were other violations, I would have stepped out," he said. "I did
not make a threat. But it was in my mind. If I noticed another violation, I
would have stopped the execution and taken other measures," he added,
without being specific.
Faroun said he did not know how the video cellphones were taken into the
execution room at the former military intelligence headquarters, where
Hussein's government had tortured and killed his opponents. Everyone at the
hanging, Faroun said, was searched and had their phones taken. "Even my
cellphone, which had no camera, was taken," he said.
The Reuters news agency, meanwhile, reported that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad had urged Maliki to postpone the execution for two weeks until
after the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha but that he relented after Maliki
produced documents legally authorizing the execution. U.S. officials
declined to comment on the report.
In Hussein's home town of Tikrit, peaceful protests continued for the third
straight day. Tuesday morning, several thousand demonstrators marched to the
nearby village of Auja, where Hussein is buried. Firing guns into the air,
they chanted, "Revenge, revenge," and, "We shall always remain Baathists,"
referring to Hussein's outlawed Baath Party. The protesters carried
portraits of the former leader depicting him as the hero of the Arab Nation.
Thousands more Sunnis protested in the northern city of Mosul, while in
Baghdad, similar but smaller demonstrations have taken place in several
mainly Sunni neighborhoods.
"This action really put a great difficulty in front of us," said Alaa Maki,
an influential Sunni politician, referring to the execution and video. "So
many people now are having strong reactions against the Shiites, and they're
doing shouts here and there and saying Saddam is a hero. This will not
benefit the building of the political process."
He added that Maliki needed to take decisive action against Sadr and his
Mahdi Army militia. "Now he's in a very critical state," Maki said of the
prime minister. "My advice to him is he has to sign -- as he signed the
execution of Saddam -- he has to sign the pulling out of weapons of the
Mahdi Army and the militias. Otherwise, he's a prime minister for Shiites.
Not only for Shiites but for al-Sadr and the people of all the militias."
Rikabi scoffed at the criticism from Sunnis that the execution showed
Maliki's inability to control militias. "This is not related to the
militias," he said. "You can't judge the ability of the prime minister by
this."
"To be honest with you, many people try to defend Saddam," he said. "They
can't say, 'Oh, Saddam was a very good president. Why did you kill him?' So
they try to find some small mistakes here or there."
On Tuesday, the U.S. military reported that an American soldier was killed
and three others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their
patrol southwest of Baghdad on Monday. The soldiers were in a village
talking to residents about sectarian violence in the area. An interpreter
was among the three injured.